Thanks him for Balanus specimens. Comments on his findings. A large Acasta in the wet state would be valuable. Asks JSB to mention his work to J. T. Quekett at the College of Surgeons.

Transcription

Down Farnborough Kent

Friday

My dear Sir

I received your note yesterday & the Box from the Geological this morning. I thank you cordially for your real kindness in making me so
valuable a present. The Acasta's or sponge Balani are
extraordinarily fine ones & I shall now be able to make well out the structure
of the shell in that genus, which I was wishing to do & was regretting some time
since, that I had only the little British Species.

But the prize in the set in an old shabby looking Balanus, which I feel almost sure
will turn out quite a new genus & a very interesting one, as throwing
light on some other genera.

Should you receive any sponges in Spirits, pray do not forget how valuable a large
Acasta in the wet state would be to me.

Thank you for telling me about the Barnacle at the Coll. of Surgeons, but unfortunately I am not in the least acquainted with Mr
Quecket: do you know him well, & if so, would you
object to mention my intention of making a monograph of the Cirripedia: anything from
N. Zealand has a good chance of being interesting.

The conjectured date is based on CD's reference to his intention of making
a monograph of the Cirripedia, a decision which was first mentioned in letter to
J. E. Gray, 18 December 1847. The letter also precedes letter to John
Thomas Quekett, 7 September [1848].

+

f2 1045.f2

The Geological Society of London. CD and Bowerbank were both members of the council
during 1848.

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f3 1045.f3

In Living Cirripedia (1854): 307 n., CD thanked Bowerbank
for making available specimens of Acasta he found embedded in ‘his
immense collection of sponges from all parts of the world’. See also letter to
J. S. Bowerbank, 24 February [1849].

+

f4 1045.f4

CD recorded working on Acasta and Clisia during March 1847
(‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix
I).

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f5 1045.f5

CD identified this organism as one of two species of the new genus
Pachylasma, P. aurantiacum. In a note, CD thanked Bowerbank
‘for this unique and interesting species’ (Living
Cirripedia (1854): 481 n.). Pachylasma was of interest
for exhibiting characters of both of the two sub-families of the Balanidae, the
Balaninae and the Chthamalinae. CD placed the genus within the latter group, but noted
its transitional nature in a passage reminiscent of William Sharp Macleay's
views: ‘If the genera of the Chthamalinæ were ranged in a circle,
Pachylasma would be the point of contact with the Balaninæ.’
(ibid., p. 477).

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f6 1045.f6

Possibly a specimen of Pentalasmis vitrea, a synonym for Lepas
fascicularis, in the Royal College of Surgeons (1830, pt IV, p. 73),
which CD described in Living Cirripedia (1851): 98.

+

f7 1045.f7

John Thomas Quekett, assistant conservator of the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of
Surgeons, and secretary of the Microscopical Society, of which Bowerbank was a member
(see letter to J. T. Quekett, 7 September [1848]).

+

f8 1045.f8

The area of the South Pacific including New Zealand in the east, Sumatra in the
west, Australia in the south, and the Philippines in the North, ‘though
including two distinct Cirripedial regions, is small compared with the surface of the
globe, yet includes a greater number of species, especially of peculiar species, than
the whole rest of the known world.’ (Living Cirripedia
(1854): 159–60).